Meditation and Contemplation: Word and Image at the Service of Medieval Spirituality

The use of images in intimate piety in the XIV–XV centuries responded to the need to create a mental reality that would be complemented by the imitation of Jesus’, Mary’s and the saints’ lives turned into models of permanent emulation. The faithful were expected to show the same qualities as these divine characters, so spiritual practices acquired ethical and public implications. Devotional objects played a central role in meditation, affecting the senses and the soul directly. The religious effigy provoked an empathy with what was viewed and helped by jogging the memory and feelings about the holy figures in all stages of their lives, varying the emotions to the detriment of each event. If one thought, for example, of the risen Christ, one would experience joy, but if one meditated on His Passion, one would become afflicted by sorrow. The dissemination of these habits of contemplating the images and the numerous treatises concerned with directing evocation are sufficient evidence to confirm the triumph of visuality for the excitement of piety.